MOSCOW/OSLO (Reuters) – Norway’s Telenor and Russian partner Alfa Group have agreed to merge their Russian and Ukrainian holdings into a New-York listed mobile operator worth over $23 billion, ending one of the longest ever Russian corporate wars.

The end to the row, which was seen as a major threat to foreign investment in Russia, and which could have seen Telenor lose its stake in Russia’s No. 2 mobile operator in payment of a $1.7 billion fine, sent Telenor’s stock surging 15 percent.

OSLO (Reuters) – Environmental activist group Greenpeace blocked on Friday a coal mine in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago deep in the Arctic, protesting plans for more coal production in one of the world’s northernmost regions.

More than a dozen protesters stopped a conveyor belt at the Svea mine carrying coal to a ship due to sail to Portugal with 70,000 tons this weekend.

Unlike millions of Poles who have flocked to Western Europe in the past few years in search of jobs, Jan Malachowski came to Norway in 1986 seeking political asylum and safety from Poland’s communist regime.

But like many of his compatriots, Malachowski will not celebrate the 20th anniversary of Poland’s June 4, 1989 election, which ushered in democracy in the Soviet Union’s backyard and helped pave the way for the collapse of the Berlin Wall five months later.

Despite their outward modernity, many people across the Nordics find their moral compass in Jante Law, an early 20th century concept which basically says: You are no better, no smarter and no more important than anyone else.

A touch of such humility, according to Finland’s central bank governor Erkki Liikanen, is being adopted by the most unlikely of audiences — European and American policymakers.